The need for high performance in information technology systems, particularly high capacity information technology systems, is driven by several factors. In many industries, critical information technology applications require outstanding levels of service. At the same time, the world is experiencing an information explosion as more and more users demand timely access to a huge and steadily growing mass of data including high quality multimedia content. The users further demand that information technology solutions protect data and perform under harsh conditions with minimal data loss. Increasingly, the users also demand that information technology systems have improved ease of use, even as the systems become ever more complex, sophisticated, and feature laden.
Accordingly, the need for accurate and timely user documentation has increased. The need for accurate and timely user documentation is exacerbated by the fact that in many cases the users of these sophisticated and complex systems are not programmers or analysts but are business persons or other lay people.
At the same time, manual production of accurate and timely documentation is expensive, and a long-term and ongoing shortage of qualified documenters exists in the marketplace. In particular, in many development environments, most qualified developers and analysts are already busy attempting to meet deadlines for new systems or attempting to keep existing systems running in a satisfactory fashion.